Jansel stumbledto a sudden stop as he entered the kitchen. Emerson glanced over to see Luca, following close behind, almost run into his back.
Jansel released a low whistle.
“Running Short King Florists as a side hustle now?”
Emerson gave a short huff as he took the lasagna out of the oven.
“Prepping the wildflower field for the wedding. I couldn’t just tarp over all of them.”
He took off his oven mitts before turning to the kitchen island. Which was, yeah, okay, covered in flowers. Every single Mason jar that wasn’t already in use elsewhere was currently crammed on the counter, along with every random receptacle he had been able to find. A few actual vases. A handful of Mexican Coke bottles, a favorite treat of Jayden’s.
It would sound like a silly thing to an outsider, Emerson knew, the fact that he’d spent almost his entire workday collecting flowers. But the truth was it had been back-breaking work, and he’d only gotten a pathetic fraction of the area he needed to tame for the wedding ceremony cleared of blooms.He knew he couldn’t save all the flowers, but hopefully Liv would buy the ones he had, and the profit vs. his time balancing act that he lived every goddamn day of his life would be worth it.
He’d save what he could of the flowers this week, then tarp over an area wide enough for an aisle, for seating for a hundred people, for the dais where Ben and Alexei would seal their commitment to each other. The tarps would help smother growth without tearing up the soil. And then he’d do what he could to make the area presentable.
“I’ll take them over to Liv tomorrow morning, see if she’ll take them.”
Luca took off his Giants hat, scratched his fingernails across his scalp. “Liv at the IGA?”
For the first time since Luca and Jansel had walked through the door, Emerson allowed himself to really look at Luca. He looked…sun-kissed. And sweaty. And tired.
He smiled at Emerson over the flowers.
And happy. There was a streak of dirt running along his jaw. He looked tired and sweaty and happy.
Emerson looked back down at the ridiculous array inside his kitchen.
“Yeah. She’s my biggest customer in town. Typically she requests what she needs, but sometimes I bring her things and see what she says. I’ve brought her flowers before and she’s taken them, but…guess I haven’t brought her quite so many at once.”
“I can take them over there in the morning, if you’d like. If that’s okay.”
Emerson looked up.
“That’d be great, actually.” It was these types of errands, all the deliveries and pickups and little things that took him away from the farm that always stacked up more than Emerson expected. That Emerson would love to have help with.
Plus, then Luca would have to be the recipient of Liv’syou’ve got to be shitting melook instead of him. Liv liked Emerson alright, or at least so he hoped. But it was Jayden she always worked with the most, back in the day. He was pretty sure Liv could tell she made Emerson nervous. He was pretty sure it inspired her to bust his balls even more.
He was sure there was more he was about to say—asking how the day had gone in the beds, if Luca had any food allergies, that he didn’t have to have dinner with Emerson and Daisy if he didn’t want to—but Luca, at that precise moment, leaned down to stick his nose in a bouquet. Something about the whole picture—the riot of color between himself and Luca, the yellows and purples and pinks and whites, the way Luca’s long eyelashes kissed his cheeks, the yellow warmth of the overhead light hitting his face just so, the stubble of his chin almost hidden in the greenery?—
By the time Emerson realized Jansel was saying something to him, Jansel was already popping the cap back on a dry erase marker. Emerson blinked over to the whiteboards. Jansel raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Emerson said, throat dry. He cleared his throat. “Sounds good.”
Jansel’s eyes tracked between Emerson and Luca, who was still examining the rows of flowers. A smirk flitted across his face as he twirled his car keys around a finger. Emerson’s cheeks heated.
“Well, fellas,” Jansel said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Thanks for everything today, man,” Luca finally lifted his gaze from the island to say.
“Hey, you too.”
Daisy emerged from the hall, purple headphones on her ears, fingers clutching an equally colorful tablet. Jansel ruffled a hand through her hair on his wayout. A second after the door shut behind him, Daisy looked up, eyes brightening as she registered Luca’s presence.
“New farmer man!” she shouted at her even-louder-than-normal range. Emerson hustled over to lift the headphones from her ears.
Luca smirked. “Don’t know if we can call me a farmer yet.”
“You’re on our farm. You’re a farmer. I’m a farmer, too!”
